Welcome to Action for Swifts, a commentary on the activities, ideas and thoughts of people who care about Swifts. We welcome guest posts, case studies and reports, especially from Swifts Local Network (SLN) members. Please send to actionforswifts@gmail.com for publication. To find topics of interest, use the LABELS & LINKS sections, or use search, top left. Click on any image to see it enlarged.

Thursday, 14 August 2014

The breaking news is that, in the 4th summer of playing attraction calls, the Swifts have finally found the nest-boxes.
The tower was built in 2011 and we started playing calls with a customised bird scarer. Swifts showed some interest, but none were seen going very close to the nest-boxes.

We continued in 2012 with the same result and the bird scarer had become unreliable. We suspect the 5 watt solar panel was not quite up to the task, so we installed our own 'Box of Swifts' with a 1.5 inch car tweeter. The result was the same.

So, in 2013, after we had stumbled across the Cheng Sheng player amplifier, we installed a 20 watt solar panel to charge the battery which drove the player-amp and 2 tweeters. This resulted in Swifts actually making contact with the tower, clinging to the boxes, but still not finding any entrances. As a result of this, we made some more entrances where we thought the birds were trying to get in.

Solar panel facing south at 30°

In 2014, things seemed much the same, with Swifts regularly seen near the tower, but none making an entrance. At one point the battery went flat, so we resited the solar panel so that it was never in the shade and pointing in the optimal direction (south sloping 30°).

We seemed to be making little progress, so, in mid June, I popped an email to Brian Cahalane, an attraction call playing afficionado, to ask what would he do? His reply was to start playing calls at dawn and finish at dusk.

So the timer was reset to go from 5am to 12 noon and from 5pm to 10pm - this gave 12 hours of playing, we are not confident how much longer the solar panel and battery could go in a day. We had not previously played at the ends of the day for fear of disturbing local residents.

On 26th June, Bob Tonks was cycling past the tower, and he saw a Swift exiting one of the boxes (so thank you Brian and Bob). Since then we have seen Swifts entering or leaving 15 different boxes, 12 on the front and 3 on the back. Most observation has been done on the front. We saw no Swifts entering the new entrances that we had made on the back.

The only entrance in the top half of the back;
visited by swifts in 2014

We don't think there are 15 potential pairs for next year, as this was probably a small number of birds exploring their options.

One or 2 observations:

Although there are entrances at all levels on the front of the tower, Swifts only entered boxes in the top half. On the back, there is only 1 entrance in the top half, and Swifts used it. So, should we add more entrances in the top half on the back?

3 entrances with white canopies
were visited by swifts in 2014

Another thing, on the front, the paint had peeled away from the canopies above 3 entrances, turning them white. Swifts were seen entering these 3 boxes. The statistical probability of randomly choosing 3 specific boxes turns out to be about 2% - so should we paint a few more canopies white, especially in the lower half?

For the whole of July, if one loitered near the tower one would see anything between 3 and 10 Swifts in the near vicinity with some impressive screaming displays past the face of the tower. If this is a taste of what is to come, then it should be an impressive spectacle on summer evenings in the future.

Monday, 11 August 2014

[This may be a temporary post, as the video may disappear at any time.]This is an inspiring video showing how Erich's Swifts trust him at close proximity, provided he does not disturb them in their space.

Sunday, 10 August 2014

[It is nice when the press puts out a positive story, especially when they get their facts right. So we unashamedly reproduce this piece that appeared in the Newmarket Journal.]With suitable nesting locations rapidly dwindling it is no wonder that our country's swift population is in decline. Recognising this problem, volunteers at Worlington are working to re-establish the area's swift population, bringing back the once familiar sight of swifts circling around the village's church.

Click to enlarge

FEATURE

BY ALISON HAYES

Pictures by Geoffrey Pieter and Judith Wakelam;

For many they will always evoke memories of childhood as
they wheel, tirelessly, high in the summer skies and although the swift's stay
on these shores is short the tiny birds have, for decades, been a much-loved
feature of the countryside.

But now they are in need of help as numbers are declining,
not least as modern buildings have fewer holes for them to nest in.

Among a group of dedicated volunteers at the forefront of
the campaign to help re-establish swifts is Worlington resident Judith Wakelam.

Her interest in the tiny globe-trotting birds was first
sparked more than a decade ago when she picked one up that had fallen from a
nest and set about trying to find out how to care for it.

"No one could really give me any advice until I reached
the British Trust for Ornithology and with the help of member, Chris Mead, I
managed to rear the bird," said Judith.

Since then she has become something of an expert and the
results of her hard work are evident to anyone glancing up at the sky around
the tower of the village's All Saints Church which is currently full of swifts.

The tower is now home to 38 special swift nest boxes, the
first of which were installed in 2009, with the first pair of swifts nesting
the following year. Now there are around 20 pairs rearing young in the church.

And at her bungalow in Church Lane, Judith has not only had
a special nest box installed which she constantly monitors with the help of a
television camera, she also has three young swifts. the Ely Three as she calls
them, which came to her via builders replacing a roof in the city, and which
she has hand reared and will release on Newmarket Heath within the next few
days.

Fed on wax worms and black crickets, the tiny birds appear
clumsy but once they are freed they can fly, balancing on the air at up to 10,000 feet and unlikely to ever land again feeding, drinking, preening and
even mating on the wing.

"They are truly remarkable birds." said Judith.
"They are prompted to leave their nest by hunger as their parents will
already have begun their migration so they are completely on their own.

The birds will fly to Africa in August and return to Britain
to nest in April, a round trip of some 22,000 kilometres and they will return
to same nesting site, which is why Judith wants to encourage churches,
households and schools to install nesting boxes.

"If everyone put up just one nest box it would really
help," said Judith, who is a member of Action for Swifts, an organisation
which offers advice on rescue and conservation of the birds.

And as a volunteer, Judith takes calls from all over the
country and beyond from people who have come across the birds and want to help
them.

Hers is truly a labour of love and she is heartened that her
efforts are bearing fruit. An elderly village resident came up to me recently
and said I want to thank you for what you have done to get the swifts back in
the church tower," said Judith. "He told me he had not seen as many
birds since around 1951 when the church roof had had to be replaced and the
nesting holes were blocked up."

As for the swifts, to Judith they have become part of her
family. "The fact that these tiny things will leave here totally alone and
fly half way round the world and back again is amazing," she said.

"And when I release one it is a moment for a few tears,
one of those sad but happy moments which leaves me looking forward to welcoming
them back next year." For more information on how you could provide a nesting
box for swifts, contact Judith on 01638 715971 or go to
actionforswifts.blogspot.co.uk

Szczecin International Swift Seminars - April 6th-9th 2016

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Maps of Swift Observations 2013 - see the spring migration as it happens!

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